In addition
to his role as one of the founding fathers of the U.S., Thomas Jefferson is
known for his interests in architecture, history, science, engineering, and
many other wide and varied items. His pursuit of those interests knew few
bounds, as evidenced by his almost humorous quest to prove a European scientist
wrong.
In 1785,
Jefferson was the ranking American diplomat in France. And there, he decided to
take on the misguided beliefs of Georges de Buffon, the leading French
naturalist of the day. Buffon believed that the animals and plants of North
America were inferior, in size and vigor, to those of Europe.
To prove
Buffon wrong, Jefferson commissioned a hunter to shoot an American moose and
ship it to him France, which was not a small feat. The American diplomat was disappointed in the size
of the carcass that arrived, so he ordered another hunting expedition, writes
historian Joseph J. Ellis in his 1996 biography American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson.
Although “somewhat frustrated that the [second] moose was only seven feet tall and that its
hair kept falling out,” Jefferson had the carcass put on display in the
entry of the hotel in which he lived, notes Ellis.
“Buffon, who was himself a minuscule man
less than five feet tall, was invited to observe the smelly and somewhat
imperfect trophy but concluded it was insufficient evidence to force a revision
of his anti-American theory,” Ellis adds.
Interestingly,
Jefferson believed not only that American plants and animals were no less
impressive than European varieties, but that America produced more impressive
plants and animals than Europe. In a sense, Jefferson became sort of an
American Buffon, believing that mammoths – those large, hairy, prehistoric animals
resembling modern elephants – still roamed the unexplored American West.
